foxbat

Harrison scores on first offensive drive after forcing a punt. Leads 14-0 over Anderson with 5:30 in 1Q.

Harrison returns opening kickoff 85 yards. Leads Anderson 7-0.

You don't remember that from the foreword of The Friday Night Referee Instruction Manual? "Welcome to the wonderful world of Friday night referees. You are about to embark on a thrilling journey. Before we get started, just a reminder that the best officials in the state will be in the stands, but thanks for your service just the same."

Didn't hurt while he was there, but Pioneer had been doing it successfully before he got there.

No wonder the goats get real nervous when fall approaches.

We could have the It Follows rule. Basically, once you touch the ball you will be hit/tackled unless you give it away to someone else.

Sometimes simple is the most effective. I always thought that Pioneer was a great example of that ... nothing flashy, no trick plays, no screwy formations ... just line up and play ball and win.

Love this story and focus on the Tri program. Thanks for putting this in there. For all the old talk of forcing consolidations and contractions, Tri didn't buy into that. They enhanced their youth program which, as a former youth coach, I can tell you has great impact that goes way beyond where the high school is 8-12 years down the line. Those kinds of things also pay off in the classrooms and hallways ... way beyond the football fields. South Newton's also showing similar pep-in-the-step in the face of a few adverse seasons. Rooting for these programs to continue to make strides and grow their programs and experiences for their kids.

It may have been a casualty, getting caught between posts that got chopped and not necessarily due to your post specifically.

I'm not saying it should account for them, just perhaps tag a Sagarin score as being "incomplete" based on data that it is showing. For example, when it shows wins and losses, it actually does show in-state and out-of-state in that data; however, the Sagarin score is not a representation of all of those games shown in W/L as the out of state games there in the W/L are not represented in the Sagarin. I know it's early in the season, so the Sagarin scores are still not as far along on their "baking" yet, but as an example, one could argue that GS's 70.00 Sagarin and 39.21 SOS is actually UNDERrepresented by these scores as they don't reflect their win over Kentucky's South Warren last week.

For some schools, it's because they HAVE to. For example, Harrison, McCutcheon, and Jeff used to be in the HCC and were asked to leave. They were playing mainly higher caliber 5A/6A schools at that time in the HCC. They were able to return to the NCC, but that also has them playing 4A competition that is sometimes closer, like Logansport, and sometimes not, like Marion and Richmond ... although Harrison and Jeff are 6A-sized schools.

I wish that Sagarin gave an indication when its score is not truly reflective of all games reported. For example, in Sagarin, Andrean shows as 2W 2L, but the Sagarin score show doesn't include one of those games. So that Sagarin score is only indicative of three of their games and, in this case, doesn't account for the win over Crete-Monee.

Hey now! ... That hurts.

It's funny in the Carlin piece for MLB, but I always see that, in a different way when I watch young kids play baseball. With 9 and 10 year olds, there's no such thing as a routine fly ball. Sometimes it's just like Vegas waiting for the roulette ball to finally settle into a slot ... or fly off the table completely.

Is this the opportunity to pick up extra points to pick-up an additional three points? Kind of like Carlin's 25-point bonus in basketball for any ball that goes into the basket off of another player's head? Talk about a way to offset the running clock.

According to Carlin, that could be made more exciting by letting guys take the bat with them around the bases on a hit.

LCC's still listed in the Top 10 for the coaches' poll and just dropped out of the AP. I just don't know what to think of them this season when projecting forward. I keep thinking of the advice that I always followed in snake hunting, "No matter how many times you've hit the water moccasin on the head with a stick and no matter how far down into the mud that head is, never pick the thing up by the tail until you've cut its head clean off."

I need them to keep doing well for this weeks HC Pick'em.

No problem. I bunched the two sentences together and should have separated them.

3 POINT GAMES Northwestern @ Cass Twin Lakes @ Benton Central West Lafayette @ Rensselaer Central Catholic @ Tipton Western @ Hamilton Heights Eastern @ Carroll Taylor @ Clinton Central Gibson Southern @ Southridge Mooresville @ Decatur Central Northview @ Owen Valley

Were you at these games or are you finding old school newspapers or an old Jeff yearbook? Looks like a first-hand account. If so, you and @kingtutneed to get together and write a book.

@Bobrefmight be in a better position to answer this, but it would seem like schools that put in these lights and then use a strobe or quick flashing effect, likely built-in to the effects database, would increase their liability for seizure-prone individuals, e.g. epileptics, if they aren't actively displaying a warning at their gates and possibly even announcing it at the outset of the game about the exposure.

Based on the one time that I saw them, and again at a scrimmage, safeties and corners looked overly-aggressive in shutting down out patterns and sweeps ... and to be fair, they were successful at that ... but it left them vulnerable to the long ball and deeper crossing patterns.

I don't know that it's necessarily a snub, just not enough to get into the Top 10. If I'm looking at that Top 10, I could see Triton getting votes over MC and maybe Tri or Carroll, but probably not from the same coach. As such, I think they probably got a few 9 and 10 votes, but not as many as MC ended up with. They are right on the cusp, so I would consider it more of a snub if they weren't next in line ... for example if they were down at the #6 area of receiving votes or not receiving votes at all.

Would agree with you on LCC winning this one and I think your score is probably reasonable as well, except that the problem for Tipton getting to LCC is that Tipton seems to have a rather anemic passing game. LCC has had trouble keeping teams out of the endzone this year including Seeger and Northwestern. Seeger and Tipton are in the same Sagarin neighborhood, although Seeger's strength of schedule is lower ... and they put up 21 points on LCC's D. I've only had one opportunity to see LCC play and that was in a scrimmage against a 5A school. They seem to be able to play the edges and are decent in the middle on runs, but susceptible to deep balls. Again, that may well have been just the mix of personnel for the scrimmage or trying out new schemes, so may not be indicative of where they are now. Unfortunately, Seeger didn't do stats for their game on MaxPreps, but Northwestern had a 72 yard reception in their game. West Lafayette had a couple of receivers with 42 and 37 yard catches and put up almost 350 yards passing on LCC. Guerin had a receiver with a 91 yd pass play as well as a 30 ... and put up about 300+ yards in the air. It may be more lopsided if Tipton can't stretch LCC's secondary any.